Television

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Americans under the age of 26 more likely to be arrested than previous generations

Americans
under the age of 26 are much more likely to be arrested than Americans born in
previous decades, with the increase in arrest rates occurring most rapidly
among white Americans and women, according to a new study by the Rand Corporation., as reported by The Crime Report.

Author
James P Smith, the Distinguished Chair in Labor Markets and Demographic Studies
at the RAND Corporation, argues the rising rate of arrests and convictions are
associated with lower probabilities of being married, fewer weeks worked, lower
hourly wages, and lower family incomes during Americans adulthood.

Data
showed that people between ages 26 and 35 were 3.6 times more likely to have
been arrested as compared to those who were at least 66 years old. About
one-third of the men between the age of 26 and 35 had been arrested during
their youth, 2.6 times the rate of those 66 and older.

However,
women experienced an even more rapid relative increase in arrests, according to
the findings.

Among
those aged 66 and older, arrests before age 26 occurred among only one in 100
participants. But among those aged 26 to 35, about one in every seven women had
been arrested at least once by age 26.

Moreover,
Smith found that black men were more likely to have been arrested during their
youth than white men (33 percent for blacks compared with 23 percent for
whites), but the probability of being arrested was converging over time between
the races.

“Increased
enforcement is likely a critical driver of this trend,” Smith wrote in his
report. “This evidence suggests that the growing criminalization of American
youth is increasingly affecting all races and genders.”

Smith
collected data from a survey of participants in the national Panel Study
of Income Dynamics, which has gathered information for 50 years about 5,000
American families and 35,000 individuals living in those families

Significantly,
Smith found that being arrested for a crime was associated with a 3.5
percentage point drop in the likelihood of being married, with multiple arrests
further lowering the likelihood of marriage.

People
arrested only once during childhood had about $6,000 less in annual earning as
adults, with the earnings even lower (about $13,000 less) if someone had
multiple arrests during childhood. People with violence or drug arrests
averaged about $11,000 less in annual earnings.

“It
is imperative that we better document the relative role played by criminal
activity and enforcement because the trends have long-term consequences both
for individuals and our society,” Smith concluded.

About Matt

An analysis of crime and punishment from the perspective of a former prosecutor and current criminal justice practitioner.
The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or postions of any county, state or federal agency.